he relates what passed concerning sulpicia, the niece of cratilius, king of lithuania.
the agreeable way in which periander told the story of his strange adventures, gave pleasure to every one of his hearers, except maurice, who, when he was alone with his daughter, said to her, "it seemeth to me, transila, that periander might relate the events of his life in a few less words, and less diffusely than he does. i do not see why he need detail, so very minutely, all about the fishermen and their festivals, nor yet their marriages, for though episodes may be admitted to ornament a tale, they should not be as long as the original story itself; but the fact, i suspect, is, that periander likes to show the cleverness with which he can relate, and what fine language he can use in his descriptions." "it may be so," said transila, "but all i know is, that whether he dilates, or whether he is succinct in what he tells us, all is charming and gives one pleasure to hear it, but to none of us does it give more delight than to sinforosa, as i believe i told you before; she hangs on every word that drops from periander's lips, as if her very soul went along with them."
the perpetually changing thoughts of polycarp prevented him from lending much attention to periander's discourse, and he wished that there might not be a great deal more to relate; but sinforosa had so great a desire to hear the end, that she entreated him to return the next day, which he agreed to do, and continued his history thus:—
"you must consider, sirs, that my crew of mariners were men more rich in valour than in gold, and for my part i began to feel some doubts whether my liberality had quite pleased them, and although allowing the king leopold to go away free was done by their consent, as well as my own, yet as the dispositions of all men are not the same, i suspected that they were not quite satisfied, and that it would not be easy to make them amends for the hundred thousand pieces of gold which leopold offered for his ransom, and this moved me to speak to them thus; 'my good friends, do not allow yourselves to regret the recollection of the large treasure you have lost, which was offered to us by the king, for i would have you know that one ounce of honourable fame is worth more than a pound of pearls. and this you cannot feel until you have begun to taste the sweets of having won that renown which is gained by great and good deeds. the poor man, enriched by virtue, may become famous, whilst the rich one, if vicious, can never know anything but infamy. generosity is one of the most pleasing virtues in him who aspires to renown; and so true is this, that you will never find an ill-conditioned person liberal; an avaricious or covetous man cannot be so.' i was proceeding thus in my discourse, seeing that they lent an attentive ear to me as their countenances showed, when i was interrupted by discovering a ship which was not far from our own—indeed hard a lee upon our course: we flew to arms, and gave chase with all the sails we could set. in a short time i ordered a shot to be fired as a signal to bring her to; we did so, and she slackened sail. on coming near, we beheld one of the strangest sights imaginable: hanging to the yards and the rigging were more than forty men strangled. i marvelled greatly at this; and going alongside, some of my men boarded her without meeting any opposition. they found the deck deluged with blood, and covered with the bodies of men dead and dying, some with their hands cut off, some with their heads cleft asunder, some bleeding, some just expiring; one man was sending forth the most dismal groans, another uttering shrieks of agony. all this death-scene seemed to have taken place after a repast, for divers articles of food swam amidst the blood, and mingled with these were drinking cups and bottles still half full of wine. but now, treading over the bodies of the dead and dying, my mariners passed on to the stern cabin, where they found a party of a dozen beautiful women: foremost amongst them stood one who seemed to be their captain, armed with a white corslet, so clear and polished that it might almost have served as a mirror; she wore a throat piece, but no armour on her arms or legs; on her head was a helmet of curiously twisted workmanship, ornamented with an infinite variety of differently coloured stones; she held a javelin in her hand, all studded over with golden nails, and a large knife of shining and sharp steel. she looked in this array so spirited and graceful, that her bare aspect was enough to make the men, as they entered, stop short and gaze upon her with wonder and awe.
"i, who had been looking on for some time from our own vessel, now came on board the other, to see better what was going on. i arrived just in time to hear her saying to my men, 'i can well suppose, o soldiers, that the sight of this little army of women rather inspires you with wonder than with fear. as for us, after the vengeance we have taken for our wrongs, nothing can ever excite fear in us again. attack us, if ye are thirsting for blood, and shed ours; we freely give our lives so that we preserve our honour. i am sulpicia, the niece of cratilio, king of lithuania; my uncle gave me in marriage to the great lampidio, as noble in lineage as he was rich in the gifts of nature and fortune. we were going to visit the king, my uncle, secure, as we imagined, among our own vassals and servants, all of whom were beholden to us for some act of kindness or other with which we were constantly loading them, but all these obligations were forgotten. one night, after they had drunk deeply, although half stupified by wine, they dared to lay their wicked hands on my husband, and deprived him of life, as the first beginning of their abominable designs; but we resolved to defend ourselves, and at least not to die unavenged. availing ourselves of the state of drunkenness they were in, and the little sense they had left, we armed ourselves as well as we could, and with the help of four servants, who remained true to us, and had not joined the guilty conspiracy, we performed the work of death which you have witnessed on the deck, and carrying our vengeance further, we made the masts and rigging bear the fruit which you now behold hanging thereon. forty men are strangled there, and if there had been forty thousand they would have shared the same fate, so weak were they and unable to defend themselves, so fierce in our wrath were we. i possess riches, which i can distribute among you, although, perhaps, i might rather say, that you can take them. i will only add that i give them up to you willingly; take them, gentlemen, and do not molest us.'
"even if i had been a real pirate, the words of sulpicia would have softened my heart; one of my fishermen said, 'may i die if here is not another king leopold offering riches to us, with whom our noble captain may show his high breeding. look you, my lord periander, the lady sulpicia may go free, we ask no more than the glory of having conquered our selfish desires.'
"'and so it shall be, my friends,' i replied, 'since you desire it, and i truly believe that heaven never lets such acts go unrewarded, any more than it surely punishes the deeds that are evil: now clear this bad fruit from the rigging, and clean this deck, and then offer with their liberty your services to these ladies.'
"they did as i commanded, and the fair sulpicia, full of gratitude and admiration, fell at my feet like one who could not entirely believe all that she heard.
"she tried to answer and return our kindness in some measure, and bade one of her women bring the coffers, where she kept her jewels and money. the lady to whom she spoke did as she was desired, and in a moment, as if suddenly rained down from above, i saw spread before me, four coffers full of gold and precious jewels. sulpicia opened and displayed these before the eyes of my fishermen; perhaps the sight blinded the eyes of some of them to the generous intentions they had avowed, for there is a great difference between giving up a thing when it is before your eyes, and renouncing only the hope of possessing it. sulpicia drew forth a rich necklace of gold, glittering with precious stones, which were set in it, and said, 'accept this, o noble captain, as a gift from me, to show my gratitude. it is the offering of a poor widow, who yesterday saw herself at the height of happiness and prosperity, blest in the possession and protection of a beloved husband; and to-day subject to the will and pleasure of these men of yours, who may divide my treasures among them;—there is power in gold to soften the very rocks.'
"'the gifts of so high and noble a lady,' i replied, 'are not to be lightly valued,' and taking the necklace, i turned to my companions and said, 'this jewel is given to me, my friends, and therefore i can dispose of it as my own property; as its value seems inestimable, it is not fit that it should belong to one man only. let him who pleases take and keep it, and when he can meet with a purchaser, divide the price among you all, and do not touch one single other thing of the noble lady's possessions, so shall your fame be sounded even to the skies.'
"'we would have wished,' answered one among them, 'o great captain, that you had not given us the counsel you did, that you might have seen how entirely we feel as you do. restore the lady her necklace; the fame we seek shall need no collar to restrain or limit its bounds.'
"i was very well pleased with this reply, and sulpicia marvelled at their disinterestedness. finally she asked if i would give her twelve of my men to protect her, and some mariners who could take charge of the ship, and steer her to lithuania; i agreed, and the men i selected were well pleased to be able to do so kind an action.
"sulpicia gave us some excellent wines, and the most exquisite sweetmeats. the wind blew fair for both her course and our own, for which as yet we knew no positive destination or haven. we took our leave of her—she knew my name, and also that of carino and solercio;—she pressed our hands in hers, and with her eyes she thanked the rest, and bade them adieu. she shed many tears, caused by the mingled feelings of sorrow and thankfulness; sorrow for her husband's death, and joy in finding herself safe and free from the hands of those she had supposed were pirates, and thus we parted. i forgot to mention that i returned the necklace to sulpicia, who received it with reluctance, and only because of my absolute refusal to accept it; she even seemed half to consider my returning it as an affront.
"i then held a consultation with my men as to what course we should take, and decided to go as the wind impelled us, because we were thus more likely to fall in with other vessels.
"the night came on serene and clear, and i, calling one of the fishermen who was a mariner, and who served as the master and head pilot, to take the helm, seated myself on the forecastle, and began to watch the heavens with deep attention."
"now would i lay any wager," said maurice, aside to his daughter, "that persiles is going to give us a description of the celestial hemisphere, as if it signifies to us, one atom, what the motion of the heavenly bodies might be; for my part i heartily wish he would bring his story to an end, for the desire that i have to get away from this place is such, that i really cannot trouble myself with knowing which are fixed, and which, wandering stars, and the more because i myself know everything on that subject that he can possibly tell me."
whilst maurice and transila were speaking thus in a whisper, periander, who had paused to take breath, went on with his tale.
